With the change in weather a really nasty cold caught me.
All I could think of was chicken noodle soup.
My husband had bought a rotisserie chicken at the store and
the leftovers looked like the perfect thing for soup.
First I have to tell you my gardening failure.
Our garden has been wonderful this year. We
had tried a few new things.
The thing I was really excited about was a new way
that you can grow "LOTS" of potatoes.
You can either do this in a large garbage barrel or
in a large garbage sack. My neighbors were trying
the barrels, so I decided to try the sack.
The idea is that you provide drainage at the bottom
and begin planting your potatoes and cover with 6 inches of dirt.
Then when the potato plants come above the surface of the dirt
you continue to add dirt in 6 inch increments and
the plants continue to grow up through the dirt
and are supposed to send tubers out through all
the layers.

Well, here is my potato stash a couple of weeks ago.
You wait for the plants to die off before you harvest.
I love to bring the grandkids out to the garden so they
learn to love gardening. So I brought them out and I
was so excited. "You can expect to produce up
to 50 lbs. of potatoes."

This was just too exciting! I could hardly wait. Harvesting
potatoes is like the ultimate treasure hunt. So we sliced
the bag, camera ready! I couldn't wait to weigh my harvest.
The grandkids were excited too!
We began sifting and sifting, they were helping!

THIS WAS IT!
All the way to the very bottom of the bag, this was it!!
Mind you, the biggest one here was 2 1/2 inches
across. Now I have grown potatoes many
times. I have never had such a failure. I called the
neighbors and they had the same problem. We
don't have a clue what we did wrong as bloggers
everywhere are showing huge potatoes and huge
harvests.

Anyway, we were not wasting those expensive potatoes
(just the price of the bags of dirt to fill that garbage sack!)
So they went into our soup for today.

Additional vegetables as desired - my potatoes!
Place chicken or meaty bones in large pan and
cover with water. Add remaining ingredients except
the additional vegetables which you will add at the
end. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat.
Let simmer about 1 hour. Strain the soup. Skim
off any foam. Chop the meat into bite size pieces.
If using the meaty bones, pull pieces of meat off bones.
Bring the water back up to the original level.
Add any additional vegetables you
desire and cook them until tender. Chop and add the carrots
you cooked in the broth and the onions and celery if
desired. I don't usually use the onions or celery.
Add the noodles you have already boiled.
Heat through.
Ladel into bowls and garnish with parmesan
cheese if desired.

My favorite ingredient in this soup is the thyme. It gives it such
a wonderful flavor.

After eating this my teenage son informed me
that I am to have a pot of soup
ready all winter for when he comes home from school.
Now there is a compliment.

In keeping with Red Couch Recipe's challengeto include something we are grateful for in every postthis month, I want to say how grateful I am for awonderful husband, who doesn't complain aboutmy blogging, my tablescaping, my shopping for moreplates, etc., etc., etc. I feel so blessed and am glad that